>Doug: "Well, yeah, but how do you think a trial would go if the only
>witness had completely concocted a story about a gang rape in her
>past?"
>
>[WS:] I think the case would have had a very different outcome if the
>defendant were not some stinking rich/high status bastard - probably
>prosecutors would have offered some "plea bargaining" agreement in
>exchange for a more lenient sentence, as it is often the case.
>Prosecutors enjoy a wide range of discretion in these matters, no?
So your complaint is that the rich get justice, rather than that the poor don't?
Essentially, the system would have denied a poor person a trial at all, by blackmailing them into pleading guilty. Whereas a rich person gets the special privilege of a trial because they can afford the massive expense entailed.
>In any case, whether Strauss-Kahn was "pillorized" by the gutter press
>or got away with a crime thanks to his status and wealth, the fact of
>the matter is that while the US has the highest per capita prison
>population in world - the rich are rarely prosecuted and almost never
>put behind bars in this country, except when they screw other rich.
>Can anyone deny that? Shane?
Perhaps. But the solution would be to extend justice to the poor, rather than give the rich equal treatment.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas